The Great Reset

So you’ve probably noticed I haven't really been here much lately… And by lately I mean hardly ever in the last 2 years… yeah..sorry about that ... 😶

I guess in all reality I just got much busier than I was when I had first started my blog and YouTube channel, and to be honest a bit overwhelmed and demotivated....

While I've been oil painting for two decades, I really only started taking the possibility of a real career in art seriously soon after I moved to Hawai’i. And because it was so darn expensive to live out there, I could never afford to really travel or go off island so having a weekly blog post and video, monthly newsletters, constant tutorials etc. was not as hard to keep up with. But ever since moving back to the mainland and starting to teach college, the reality set in that I couldn't afford to do all of those things for such low financial return at the end of the day. Not that I didn't make some money off of YouTube and working with clients that YouTube brought, but I've never been a huge creator on that platform so it was never even close to what I needed to live on comfortably.

About two years ago I realized that I had spent a few years certainly learning a lot via my channel, and very happily helping other people, but at the expense of my own art making and really pushing myself to sell my artwork, rather than just selling my knowledge about creating art. Like I was making sure to have a YouTube video (usually a tutorial) out every single week to please the algorithm, but I was not setting aside the same amount of time or personal demands to create high-quality art every single week. I started out wanting a career as an artist so I could make art, and before I knew it I was spending 80% of my art time behind a screen in one way or another, whether it was filming, editing, writing, posting, marketing... the list goes on and on.

I also had originally wanted to have a successful YouTube channel, as any creator does when they first start out, but after I had seen so many videos of other creators getting burnt out, started feeling it myself, and realizing that I like my freedom too much to be beholden to an algorithm that I must please multiple times a week.. every week.. forever. Even folks that run daily shows on television like news anchors or late night hosts take off sometimes weeks at a time… So for YouTube to abandon channels when they've only been off for a week or two is obscene. I'm a human being and I refuse to live my life trying to please computers anymore.

I love to block print on vintage kerchiefs with my whimsical little carved blocks. Isn’t the lace divine?

Not to mention the fact that although I am deeply grateful for every single person who's ever paid attention to my artwork online, sincerely, I felt like it wasn't fulfilling me the same way that selling a piece of artwork or interacting with folks at an art show I was presenting at did, as had been the norm in my early 20s before social media took over the world.

This last year having my craft booth that includes a few oil paintings has been so exhilarating and fulfilling, not to mention that I am selling more original art on a regular basis than I ever have before. Interacting with people in person, hearing feedback, and genuinely getting excited to produce work in my style that people really want to buy, rather than only making work for myself and then crossing my fingers that it resonates for someone else too. I'm not there yet, but I feel confident that I'm moving towards a much more secure place within my art practice.

All this being said, it was never my intention to completely abandon this website or blog or my YouTube channel. I just needed some space and some real human interaction to help me remember why I was doing all of this to begin with.

So my goal going forth is to do one to two blog posts per month and one YouTube video every 6 to 8 weeks. I am not going to be doing any extra finagling to try to please algorithms, I am only going to post genuinely what I truly feel is worth sharing and what is worth my time to create. Instagram is one place that I tend to stay relatively active, so if you're on it reach out and let me know you came to see me there from this blog post, I'd love to say hi! @caleighbirdart

Oh and by the way, I started an entirely new block printing business 😳 It's going great!! Here's the new website I just created if you wanna check it out, but since this post is already long enough I'll go into more detail about it here soon.

I really do appreciate all of you who have stuck around through this quieter time, and want to send a warm welcome to the new folks that I've seen signing up even in the months when I was inactive. I want to be here for you just as you are for me, so thank you kindly 🫶

2.11.2025

'"Knight" at the Museum' with My Students

Something miraculous happened towards the end of teaching my art history class at Nossi College of Art last Spring. My students enjoyed it so much that a number of them requested I start an Art History club - can you believe that?! My heart was literally bursting!!

I told my students we’d chat once we came back together in the fall. When we spoke again I let them know I looked into how to set a club up and after giving it some thought I concluded that I really didn’t want to deal with all the ‘bureaucracy’ of starting an official club, such as electing officials, having regularly scheduled meetings, working out a budget, etc.

Instead I suggested that we just keep an eye on the local art museums and all attend some art happenings together. My students are all 18+ and most live independently so no need to make the outings into formal events, we can just check out whatever fun artsy thing is around town as as group!

The first one we’ve gone to was the Frist Museum for a ‘Knight in Shining Armor’ exhibit featuring actual body armor from Italy in the 17th and 18th centuries. Thursday evenings at the Frist are free with student IDs so the place was quite bustling. I loved being able to show my students what a hip place the art museum is to visit!

It’s interesting to learn about jousting as more of a regulated sport than a way to actually do battle. Maneuvering in the metal armor took a small team of people to assist the knight since it was so cumbersome and prohibitive to vision.

Of course the horses needed protection too! And how much do you love those pantaloons?!

Downstairs there was also a Japanese robe exhibition showing the fine weaving details that go into ceremonial garments. I think some of them went with full kimono ensemble, but others were just worn on their own.

The intricacies of the cloth were pretty mind blowing and supremely detailed. I can’t imagine ever wearing such delicate clothing. I would feel like a bull in china shop!

And look at my art history students go! One wore a classically inspired jacket and another gave us a little lesson on Empress Xi!

I managed to get one great pic with almost all the kiddos that came. I couldn’t believe what a great turnout it was - I would say about a dozen. Can’t wait for the next artsy outing!

12.10.2022

Happy Thanksgiving 2022!

I hope you all have had the pleasure of great food with people you love this week! I got to do two wonderful first time things with my Turkey Day this year!

I started out the day by run/walking in my very first 5k (or anything similar) at the Marietta, GA ‘Gobble Jog’ with my partner Alan and our friend Justin. This was the jog’s 20th year and practically the whole town comes out for it, some even in turkey themed headgear and costumes!

The run benefits a really comprehensive homeless shelter/resource center so it felt really special to start a day of gratitude by helping others. Plus burning some extra calories before a day of edible extravagance seems like a wise move - ha!

When we reached the finish line they happened to be playing ‘Shake Senora’ by Harry Belafonte so of course we had to dance our way across!

Then we went back to Alan’s house to prepare for Thanksgiving at his brother’s house - my first one with his family!! Yayy!

I made pumpkin pie and whipped cream totally from scratch; I even pureed a real pumpkin and made a wheat-free crust too! While cooking up all these delectables I had a great time sharing the kitchen with Alan’s daughter, Maris, who made an excellent casserole and artichoke dip - her first time contributing to Thanksgiving dinner, how sweet!

However, I’m slightly kicking myself because I totally forgot to get any pics with Alan’s family, but trust me, the spread was as marvelous as the company!

Happy Thanksgiving folks! I am so grateful for your care and attention on my art journey every single day - sending lots of love!! :):):)

11.25.2022

Choose My Next Paintings - YOU Decide!

Hey artists, want to have input on some beautiful autumn paintings for me to create??

⚡️For the next 24 hours I am running a poll where YOU get to decide the two autumn paintings I paint in gouache in my new sketchbook. I took these photos on a recent hike here in Tennessee and the colors were just so glowing in each one I'm having a hard time choosing myself which ones to recreate🍂

I’m running the poll on YouTube (on my Community Tab) and Instagram (in my Stories and Reels), but you can also vote just by commenting on this blog post below - whichever way you prefer!

Your choices are…

Now vote below and tune into my Mid November YouTube video to see which two pictures got turned into gouache landscapes in my supa cute new blue sketchbook! Yay!

Yay, thanks! I can’t wait to see what y’all decide!

11.5.2022

Anatomical Skull Glow Up

Do you remember that trio of skulls I did a while back? They were some of my most popular prints n paintings and I really loved creating them, so I’ve often kicked around the idea of making more.

Somewhat spontaneously I acquired an anatomical skull just slightly smaller than in real life to use as a reference for more skull paintings. The material and accuracy was great, but I wasn’t really a fan of the color.

So I decided to give a glow up by actually making it look much older - ha!

I wanted the skull to have that antiquated, slightly mildewing, authentic bone aesthetic to try and mimic the real deal. It was my first time trying to age an object like that and it actually turned out better than I was expecting - Yay!

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First I plugged up the sockets with cotton balls so they wouldn’t get too light colored inside. Then I sprayed a nice double layer of white primer, which was perfect for adhering the acrylic paint with a sponge.

It was a remarkably easy process and only took about 90 minutes - super fun and satisfying!

What an improvement, don’tcha think?!?

Before…

After

Stayed tuned for some more skull paintings coming soon, just in time for spooky season! Take a peek at the preparatory drawings for now 🙌

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10.9.2022

I'm Baaack!

Aloha, I know I’ve been gone pretty much this whole summer, but I really needed it. Since starting to post my art online, write a blog and begin making videos back in 2106 I have never had more than a two week break. It’s so crazy to think about how I was a creator and public artist before social media was even a thing, and taking such a long break has really been good to help remind me what that feels like.

Even though I haven’t been active much online, does not mean I haven’t been creating. I’ve been painting in gouache and oil as well as learning how to do cyanotypes and making more framed flora pieces.

Luckily now I have a whole bunch more content to share, from visiting the Smithsonian galleries for four days to hiking along the Appalachian Trail, to, or course, all the art I’ve made and barely shared.

Anyhoo, thanks for being here now and allowing me the freedom to take a nice, long reset in order to remember how much I love sharing my art through posts and videos. Don’t you worry, I’m not going anywhere in the big scheme of things:)

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9.24.2022

Second Place at an Art Exhibit!!

My recent painting ‘Splendorifica’ just won second place at an art show at the d’Art Center in Norfolk, VA! Which was even more shocking considering I didn’t enter the art show as a contest, just as an opportunity to share my work. I thought I had already ‘won’ just by being accepted, and then I got an email saying that they actually had a juror pick a first, second, and third place winner for cash prizes, along with three honorable mentions. Color me humbled!

Don’t you just love that natural-light-filled space?!

They were kind enough to share a few images from the art exhibit, and it looks like a pretty nice one! It was specifically a portrait show and there are some incredible entries.

The d’Art Center actually sent me a letter as well, and if you noticed they said there was about 770 entries and I won second place out of all of those… Wow… I’m literally speechless!

Unfortunately I wasn’t able to attend the show because it was a little far away, but this recognition is definitely giving me the motivation to continue to apply to various regional shows and hope to get my work seen more in person, and certainly within distances that I can actually attend. I think after these long two years hiding away, people are finally ready to start coming back out into the world and checking out all of the marvelous artistic things we artists have been working on, myself included!

Here’s a little video of me packing up the painting when I was initially accepted. Hopefully I’ll be able to work with the d’Arte gallery again one day!

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7.17.2022

The Supreme Court vs Women

Normally I keep my website focused on art + nature, but how can I ignore the injustice that has just been bestowed upon myself as an autonomous human and all of the real women I use for models in my work?

The historic travesty that was handed down from the Supreme Court on Friday has felt like a weight on my soul. Knowing that the last 50+ years of progress can be undone so quickly makes me incredibly fearful for the futures of our gay and transgendered brothers and sisters as much for my own female body.

It would be one thing if the proponents of this descent back into the dark ages were even actually doing so because they valued human life so highly, but sadly these are the same people want to rip away practically all social services, not give women information and contraception to prevent such choices from even having to be made, nor even regulate guns so they’re not murdering the children that actually are already here. Absolute pathetic hypocrites, each and every one of them.

The saddest thing of all is that this is not even about any potential unborn children, this is only about control. Once again life reverts back into control by the patriarchy of the female body and will.

The fight is not over, but my heart goes out to those sentenced to a lifetime of unwanted and forced motherhood, often resulting in a lower quality of life and ability to financially care for oneself, while we figure this garbage out and get back on the right side of history. We thought the presidency of that asshole was over, but his greasy fingers have reached into the long foreseeable future and I don’t even know how to not give up on being an American anymore.

We cannot forget exactly who has taken away our rights when it comes time to vote. The small, loud, backward minority is about to wrestle power from the progressive majority if we do not make it to the polls in huge numbers at our next opportunity.

I Did an Art Trade!

If you’ve watched any of my studio tour vids (especially my latest one!) then you may have noticed am nice healthy original art collection on my walls that is not entirely mine. Now I do love monetarily supporting artists whenever I can, but I also seriously love to do art trades - one of the best hidden reasons to even be a fine artist in my opinion!

The full story….

I initially created this Puma Skull piece back in the fun quarantine days of 2020 and it had not yet found its forever home, although I did have a few inquiries, no one had yet taken the plunge. It was just hanging out in the studio waiting patiently for the right collector.

Fast forward to about a month ago when one of my sister artists Alithia Gomez (who was actually featured on my ‘Pandemic Real Talk’ vid) posted on Instagram that she was clearing out her studio and needed to get rid of lots of old pieces. She posted a quick vid of her full studio and I spotted one last black sand resin piece hanging amongst so many others.

Alithia had spent lots of her quarantine time experimenting with resin (like me!) and has since gotten really skilled with a multitude of different techniques. She can get so many effects out of the material, but my absolute favorite was when she would seemingly recreate the incredible lava-based black sand beaches of Big Island Hawai’i, which I miss literally every single day.

When I noticed this piece in the mix I immediately dropped a DM asking if she would be up for a trade and coincidentally she had been really keen on the various skull pieces I hade been posting previously. Total kismet!

Here’s a lil vid of me packing up the Puma….

And a video of me opening up the black sand piece (it’s honestly even more beautiful in person!)

I’m so super duper psyched to have this piece in my art collection! Not only does it just look so realistic you can practically hear the splashes, but it reminds me of one of my fave places on earth, AND a super inspiring sister artist who I can’t wait to meet in person one of these days.

Here’s a more detailed view of this incredibly realistic water, and you can see more of Alithia’s art at @artbyaligo

6.1.2022

Merida, Mexico Part 2: The Wow Continues!

Ok I know I’ve been promising more from Merida, and I’ve finally got a few minutes to sit down and share. In my last post, I had shown some of the great architecture and our fabulous hotel, El Palacito Secreto (The Little Secret Palace), and today I want share more of the greater Yucatan area we got to see, including a fabulous golden yellow town - a real artist’s dream!

First up is Izamal, a brightly painted saffron colored town. The reason the entire town (not just the square, but all the residences too!) was originally painted yellow was to celebrate Pope John Paul visiting in 1993 so the townspeople wanted to show him they were The Sun City, the light of God, but afterward apparently they liked it (and the tourism dollars) so much they have continued repainting it yellow ever since! Pictures truly don’t do it justice… it’s magnificent!

This is actually a Franciscan Convent built a few hundred years ago directly on a Maya pyramid, so by walking up these steps we are literally walking on a stone structure built by hand hundreds of years ago.

Say Cheeeese! (And also expect to see a painting of this magical place coming out soon!)

Many of the Yucatan towns had these festive colorful signs in their squares, so cute!

And Venkman even got to meet the Pope! What a day!

Have you ever heard of a cenote? I hadn’t! They are these underground crystal clear rivers and waterways accessed by open pits created by sinkholes. There are thousands of them around Yucatan, and when you’re swimming in one you often can’t see the bottom!

Sometimes the cenotes would be 60 feet down in the earth! We swam in this one and it was a bit chilly!

This cenote is from our day visiting the flamingoes and was much warmer since it was at surface level.

The view from inside the cenote in the image above. There were all kinds of vines and stalactites hanging down - such a vibe!

The answer is yes, people do scuba dive in them, but no, I did not. Caving of any kind seems way more terrifying than exciting to this Bird. What can I say? I feel a lil safer in the open air ;)

We also went on a boat trip in an immense biological reserve where there were five to ten thousand flamingoes hanging out, eating shrimp, and generally soaking up the sun. We were so lucky to be in Merida during the time of year they migrate because I have never seen one in the wild, much less gotten to see them actually take off and fly!

I actually got video of them taking off which I will be sharing in my upcoming art+ travel vlog. It’s really hilarious the way they kinda run on the water to takeoff like an airplane!

I feel so lucky to be able to make all these memories with my best friend ever, my mom:):)

And if you’re wondering about the local fare, well it has surely not disappointed. We gushed and exclaimed over meal after meal of the best authentic Mexican and Maya dishes, and some of the freshest seafood around!

We did actually go to Chichen Itza, the largest Maya ruins in Yucatan, as well as some great Maya museums, but since this post got a little long I’m going to tease it out to one more blog post. Also, keep your eyes out for my next YouTube vid to see some of these images get transformed into gouache paintings!

4.14.2022